Encyclopedia

CONSTRUCTORS: EMERYSON CARS LTD.

Name: Emeryson Cars Ltd.

George Emery began building racing specials in the 1930s under the Emeryson name. His son Paul took over after the Second World War and his first special was raced by Eric Winterbottom, winning a raced at the Gransden Lodge airfield circuit in 1947. The family planned an F1 car in that era but there was no money to fund it and so Paul turned his attention to Formula 3 cars, selling a few Emerysons to customer racers. In 1953 Emery turned his attention to Formula 2 and the Alta-engined prototype began appearing in British events that summer with Emery himself driving. The car also appeared with an Aston Martin engine that year and was driven by Peter Jopp and Alan Brown. The following year Colin Chapman drove the car at the International Trophy but was too slow to be classified as a finisher.

Emery spent much of the year running the car with a new Alta engine but the results did not improve. The 1955 season saw fewer appearances but Emery managed to finish second in a heat for the London Trophy race at Crystal Palace and finished fifth in the final.

The 1956 season was similar story with the team being run on a shoestring budget and engines being particularly troublesome and so in 1957 Emery was seen in action only once and the car was run in hillclimb events.

For the 1960 season, however, former Cooper works driver Alan Mann and some associates agreed to fund the construction of a new series of Emeryson cars. The team took over the Connaught factory in Send, near Woking, in Surrey. The first appeared in F2 specification for a race at Brands Hatch in August that year with Ron Flockhart driving. John Turner took the car to a race at Montlhery in October and a week later the car was raced to fifth place in the Lewis-Evans Trophy at Brands Hatch by George Wicken.

A Formula Junior version of the car proved to be quite successful, notably in the hands of Mike Spence, who gave the company a major victory at Silverstone and went on to make his F1 debut with Emeryson at Solitude in July. In October Spence finished second in the Lewis-Evans Trophy at Brands Hatch.

At the end of the year the company was bought by American Hugh Powell, although Emery agreed to stay on as the designer and produced the Mk3 version of the car. These were raced by John Campbell-Jones and American Tony Settember while Gerry Ashmore bought one which was raced by Graham Eden.

For 1962 Powell established Scirocco-Powell Racing and the cars were renamed Sciroccos and fitted with BRM engines. Emery remained involved until the end of the year when he left the organization he had established. He later turned his attention to engine-tuning while his son Peter carried on the family tradition of building racing cars with the Formula Junior Elfin.